MRC's Sports Blogger Is In LGBT Freakout Mode
Topic: Media Research Center

Mysterious Media Research Center sports blogger Jay Maxson has found someone he hates with as much passion as Colin Kaepernick and Barack Obama, and it's the gays and anything that might be remotely considered gay, like basic human decency and compassion for one's fellow man.

Consider Maxson's July 5 rant against a columnist who questioned "toxic masculinity" in baseball, which obviously means that we must succumb to "LGBT fascists":

This is not my father's issue of The Sporting News anymore. A minor league baseball writer fronting as a major league LGBT activist for the publication claims Major League Baseball has a problem with "toxic masculinity" and that by allowing "Christian Night" at the ballpark, teams are negatively offsetting "pride nights." If Jessica Quiroli, alias #heels on the field, had her way, baseball would also succumb to the ongoing feminization of the American male.

Quiroli opened her piece by zeroing in on Toronto outfielder Kevin Pillar, who got into hot water when he hurled a less-than-masculine insult at a rival pitcher earlier this season. "But he didn’t just lash out; he resorted to using a homophobic word to express his anger," she writes. "In that moment, he didn’t just expose his own faults, but the distance MLB still has to go in order to guide players on a deeper level."

Of course that deeper level means ball players should be robotically programmed with a healthy fear of the LGBT fascists and do their bidding.

Maxson went on to justify homophobia in baseball because two players were suspended for their anti-gay slurs: "Neither player was at the time fearful of homosexuals, but you can bet they have a big-league phobia about the clout of LGBT activists now."

The next day, the words "gay rodeo" were enough to set Maxson off on another gay-bashing screed:

The Washington Post sports section is suddenly showing a lot of interest in unusual events. If you're saying there must be an agenda behind it, you're absolutely right! The Post's story on a homosexual rodeo follows the typical major metro daily script on liberal issues and people: portray them as sympathetic figures doing normal things. Normalize the illegal or the unusual. Help the LGBT agenda occupy yet another part of the culture until it is awash in the rainbow flag.

Roman Stubbs normally covers University of Maryland sports, but recently made a stunning departure from his normal beat by detouring to Harrisburg, Pa., for some agenda reporting. That was the site of the sparsely attended Keystone State Gay Rodeo. It's run by the International Gay Rodeo Association, which has more defunct chapters than active, but it's newsworthy to the Post and worth brownie points with LGBT activists.

Stubbs' story focuses on Louis Varnado and Andy Pittman, rodeo competitors ... and husbands: "The married couple from Upper Marlboro shared a kiss and whispered good luck to each other before lining up with the other riders."

Competing against each other in the pole (and gender) bending competition, Pittman "beat his husband's time" and then "gave his husband a thumb's up."

Maxson obviously (and egotistically) believes the rest of America should be as squicked out by people of the same sex showing affection for each other as he is, as his concluding rant amply demonstrates:

Homosexual rodeos would not be complete without a little romance either. Stubbs tells how Mark Smith married Floyd Zwiers in a ceremony in the middle of a rodeo arena. A photo embedded in the story displays the two showing off their wedding rings.

"And while it is not every rodeo that (International Gay Rodeo Association president Bruce) Gros officiates a wedding, those are the kind of celebrations that tie the organization together," Stubbs says, probably grabbing for a tissue by now.

Some of these rodeo hands said they feel snubbed by mainstream rodeo, but the Professional Bull Riders organization has contacted Gros about a relationship in the future. “What we’re looking forward to is the day that there are out cowboys and cowgirls competing in the professional level, but that has not yet happened,” he said.

Maybe that's because many Americans, in a majority of states, were disgusted and disenfranchised when activist Supreme Court justices mandated same-sex marriage as the law of the land. They voted for marriage as the union of one man and one woman because it's been the bedrock of civilization, and the High Court threw out their votes. They won't be amused by the way this story ends either.

Varnado won some money at the Keystone rodeo, prompting this line from Stubbs: "Pittman gently wrapped his arm around his husband’s neck and said: “I’m proud of you, baby doll.”

Perhaps if he circulated outside the right-wing MRC retinue, he might figure out that it's a bad idea to dictate someone else's human rights by popular vote.

Does hatred and contempt make one a good blogger for a multimillion-dollar organization? The MRC has apparently decided it does.

WND's Solution To Bad CBO Score On GOP Health Care Bill: Attack The CBO
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Art Moore whines in a July 3 WorldNetDaily article:

The Congressional Budget Office’s scoring of the Senate Republicans’ initial health-care proposal fueled Democrat complaints that the GOP is heartlessly stripping millions of their insurance plans.

Now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he will send a revised bill to the CBO next week for scoring, apparently hoping to trim the CBO’s estimate that more than 22 million Americans would lose their health insurance in the next 10 years if the legislation passed in its current form. House Republicans passed their own version three weeks ago without waiting for a CBO score. It replaced an earlier version the CBO had said would result in 24 million being without insurance.

But critics of the CBO — described as a bipartisan federal agency within the legislative branch that provides budget and economic information and assessment to Congress — wonder why a Republican Congress would allow a group with a history of inaccurate forecasts that typically fail to account for the impact of market forces. And some have called for the agency to be disbanded or replaced.

[...]

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has proposed outsourcing the projections of budget legislation to three to five professional firms that understand the interaction between legislation and the marketplace.

He wants them to compete against each other, and the worst performer, including the CBO, would lose its contract.

Gingrich argues the CBO does not score legislation dynamically. It ignores growth that results from tax cuts and the reduced growth that results from tax increases in its projections.

Failing to model reality, he contends, the CBO “creates an inherent legislative bias toward more taxes and budget gimmicks.”

Moore and Gingrich don't explain how speculative and unquantifiable "growth that results from tax cuts" should be scored to reflect that "reality."

As a loyal conservative, Moore makes it clear his animus toward the CBO is totally partisan: "The reaction in Congress to the CBO scoring of the current Senate health-care bill reflects the cynicism many Republicans have toward the agency’s work."

MRC, CNS Can't Stop Falsely Suggesting Federal Funding to Planned Parenthood Pays for Abortions
Topic: CNSNews.com

One of CNSNews.com's longtime acts of deliberate dishonesty when reporting on Planned Parenthood is stating how much federal funding it receives immediately next to how many abortions its clinics perform, while omitting the pertinent fact that no federal funding pays for abortions because it's prohibited by law.

So it's not a surprise that CNS has continued to peddle this dishonesty, clearly endorsed from the very top.

CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman wrote in a June 27 post that "According to its 2015-16 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood performed 328,348 abortions in the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2015, and received $554.6 million in "government health services reimbursements and grants"--money that came from U.S. taxpayers--in the year that ended on June 30, 2016. Chapman didn't mention that none of that "money that came from U.S. taxpayers" paid for abortions.

Chapman repeated and expanded his claim in a July 5 article:

In its 2015-16 annual report, Planned Parenthood declared that it performed  328,348 abortions in the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2015, and received $554.6 million in "government health services reimbursements and grants"--money that came from U.S. taxpayers--in the year that on June 30, 2016.  

In addition, in 2014-15, Planned Parenthood performed 323,999 abortions in the year that ended on Sept. 30, 2014 and received $553.7 million in government health services grants and reimbursements in the year that ended on June 30, 2015.

The dishonesty is spreading to the greater MRC as well. Katie Yoder wrote on May 3 that "According to Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report, the organization performed 323,999 abortions and received $553.7 million in 'government health services grants and reimbursements' for the year 2014 – 2015," failing to mention that those government grants do not pay for abortion.

Yoder updated her dishonestly placed statistics for a July 3 MRC item: "According to Planned Parenthood's most recently published annual report, the organization performed 328,348 abortions and received $554.6 million in “government health services grants and reimbursements” for the year 2015 – 2016." Again, a refusal to honestly report those numbers.

That lack of honesty undercuts CNS' and the MRC's moral authority in attacking Planned Parenthood. Then again, rampant dishonesty seems to be a major part of the MRC's campaign against the organization.

UPDATE: A July 5 CNS article by Annabel Scott repeated this dishonest claim as well.

WND Columnist Opposes Clarence Darrow Statue At Scopes 'Monkey Trial' Site
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Larry Tomczak's July 4 WorldNetDaily column is about how he was a speaker at a rally protesting the installation of a statue of famed attorney Clarence Darrow next to that of William Jennings Bryan outside the Tennessee courthouse where the Scopes "monkey trial" was held in the 1920s:

The circus-like atmosphere of the trial ended with Mr. Scopes found guilty and fined about $1,400 (today’s money). Bryan died in his sleep five days afterward. The verdict was later overturned on a technicality and later a biased and dishonest play and film, “Inherit the Wind,” caused millions to ridicule religious opposition to evolution.

The fundamental issue is the same today: Regarding the origin of our universe and mankind, will we honor a secular/evolutionary worldview or a spiritual/creationist worldview? And can instructors present both views, or must those adhering to the trustworthiness of Scripture be forced to remain silent in the face of one-sided propaganda?

[...]

July 1, on these grounds, we participated in a patriotic rally. It wasn’t primarily about freedom of speech or religion. Rather it focused on the ongoing attempt by secularists in America to blur or remove symbols reminding us of our Judeo/Christian heritage.

I was the main speaker alongside of Dale Walker, president of the Tennessee Pastors Network, Sen. Mae Beavers, Tennessee gubernatorial candidate, and numerous Christian leaders. Our presence gave expression to our passion to preserve America’s heritage and proclaim that our Founding Fathers were not atheists and evolutionists.

[...]

Intellectual elites see biblical teaching on creation as an offense to intelligence. They declare it unscientific and dismiss the biblical account of man’s origin. Atheist Richard Dawkins said, “If you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane.”

Jesus declared, “Have you not read that He who made [CREATED] them at the beginning made them male and female” (Matthew19:4) – so does Dawkins’ description apply to Him? Are Psalm 19 and Romans 1:19-33, which affirm God as Creator, simply fairy tales?

Because of the stigma and national embarrassment of the Scopes trial (along with the defeat of unbiblical Prohibition), multitudes of Christians were disheartened. From the 1920s to ’70s many retreated from engagement in the public square. Failing to recognize what Augustine called our dual responsibilities in the “City of God and the City of Man,” many said, “Just preach the gospel,” “Stay out of politics,” “Let things collapse so Jesus will come back!”

Jesus directs us to preach the Gospel, but it’s the Gospel of His kingdom advancing His reign over every sphere of life. We have the Great Commission but also the Cultural Commission whereby, as “salt” and “light,” we “expose unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11).

We’re called to be Christian advocates for righteousness. The Abolition Movement that eradicated slavery and the Civil Rights Movement that combated injustice through nonviolence are just two examples of Christian activism that changed America.

Christians are not to be silent bystanders in the face of this tsunami of secular humanism. We’re called to be peaceful, prayerful and passionate ambassadors for our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Our society has experienced unbelievable devastation, having drifted from our biblical foundation of God as Creator and Scripture as our authoritative guide. I call your attention to the Bullseye Challenge that exposes this tragic development, while helping us in just 30 days educate our families and churches in an unshakable biblical worldview!

We must be equipped and engaged in this ongoing battle dealing with Origins 101. One man, Charles Darwin, propagated a theory that adversely impacted the world. Will you join with Christians like those who gathered in Dayton, Tennessee, to promote truth and persuade others, like our Founding Fathers did, to honor our Creator as our Declaration of Independence affirms?

Does Tomczak think that those who want only creationism taught think evolutionists should stay silent in the face of "one-sided propaganda"? And how, exactly, does does creationism fit with the Declaration of Independence? Tomczak doesn't elaborate.

(Image: Sculptor Zenos Frudakis with prototype of Darrow statue, via Americans United)

CNS Unemployment Coverage Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com

After a month in which she had to concede that the unemployment numbers weren't as good as she'd prefer for her beloved President Trump, CNSNews.com's Susan Jones was back to cheerleadering over the June jobless figures:

The U.S. economy added 220,000 jobs in June, the best showing since February and well above analysts' expectations of 174,000.

The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics also said the number of employed Americans -- which set records in February, March and April -- set another record in June, at 153,168,000 employed.

And the number of Americans not in the labor force -- after four straight monthly gains – dropped a bit to 94,813,000.

Remember, during the Obama years Jones would be leading with the low labor force participation rate and burying any positive numbers (as well as the fact that students and retired baby boomers make up a significant percentage of people not in the labor force).

As usual, Jones' article was accompanied by a Terry Jeffrey article fretting over government jobs being created at a faster rate than manufacturing jobs. Also as usual, the Obama-era staples about racial disparities in unemployment and the "real unemployment rate" are missing, as they have been since Trump took office.

WND Implicitly Concedes White Nationalist Overtone to Trump Speech -- Then Complains When It's Made Explicit
Topic: WorldNetDaily

In a July 6 WorldNetDaily article, Art Moore rhapsodized over President Trump's speech in Poland, making a very specific reference in doing so:

Ten years ago, Warsaw hosted an international conference warning of a “demographic winter” that posed an existential threat to Europe as the rejection of the “natural family” was leading to plunging birthrates and the consequent importation of millions of workers from countries with historic colonial ties who spurn Western values and refuse to assimilate.

A decade of social upheaval and terrorist attacks, accelerated by the recent influx of Muslim migrants, has turned many mockers and skeptics of that concept into believers.

And now, in his speech Thursday to a rapturous crowd in Warsaw’s Krasinski Square, President Trump has raised the issue of the West’s survival, arguing it rests ultimately not on armies and economies but on “strong families and strong values.”

“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost?” Trump asked.

“Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”

[...]

In 2007, WND covered the fourth World Congress of Families in Warsaw, attended by 3,300 lawmakers and activists from 75 nations.

One of the speakers, Poland’s vice premier and minister of education, Roman Giertych, declared the family as “the hope for Poland, the hope for Europe, the hope for the entire world.”

“Without the family, there is no nation, there is no continent, there is no civilization, there is nothing,” he said.

[...]

The planners of the World Congress of Families in 2007 said they were looking “beyond demographic winter,” promoting the “natural family” as the “springtime of Europe and the world.”

“Poland saved Europe before” by lifting the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 and helping to demolish the Soviet empire three centuries later and it is likely “she will save Europe again,” they said.

As we documented at the time, the whole "demographic winter" stuff is basically a white-nationalist argument, with the entire goal being to increase the birth rate among white Christians in order to head off the swarthy Muslim hordes.

In other words, by bringing up "demographic winter," Moore is implictly admitting that Trump's speech had white nationalist overtones.

Which is why it was strange that, the next day, WND freaked out about people who aren't WND news editors pointing out those very same white-nationalilst overtones. A July 7 article by Liam Clancy actually claimed those critics were demonstrating that "demonstrating their opposition to Western civilization" by doing so:

President Trump’s speech Thursday in Poland elicited a frenzied reaction from many progressives, demonstrating their opposition to Western civilization.

The focus of outrage was a passage detailing how the West will survive in the 21st century.

“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive,” Trump said. “Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost? Do we have enough respect for our citizens to protect our borders? Do we have the desire and the courage to preserve our civilization in the face of those who would subvert and destroy it?”

Trump continued, “We can have the largest economies and the most lethal weapons anywhere on Earth, but if we do not have strong families and strong values, then we will be weak and we will not survive.”

Peter Beinart of the Atlantic called the passage “a statement of racial and religious paranoia.”

He went on to call the idea that the West was in danger from outside forces fundamentally “absurd,” contending jihadists can kill people in the West but not topple their governments.

Beinart did not address the growing numbers of known Islamic terrorists living across the European continent.

[...]

Sarah Wildman at Vox declared that Trump’s speech in Poland “sounded like an alt-right manifesto,” citing a quote from the speech, “For family, for freedom, for country and for God.”

Wildman went on to state that Trump “cast the West, including the United States and Europe, on the side of ‘civilization,'” using scare quotes to imply he was wrong to do so.

But Trump never hinted the West was the only civilization, or even that it was superior to others, merely that the West is threatened by external enemies.

Josh Lowe at Newsweek took aim at the concept of Western civilization and values as well, believing the passage “painted the external struggle against threats like violent extremists as being tied to an internal struggle to defend supposed ‘Western values.'”

Lowe employed scare quotes around “Western values” to imply no such thing exists and that Islamic terrorism is not truly a threat to these “supposed” values.

Regarding Trump’s statement that every “foot of ground, and every last inch of civilization, is worth defending with your life,” Lowe wrote that he “really, really hope[s] this is a metaphor.”

Jeet Heer at the New Republic declared Trump’s speech was the beginning of “an international brotherhood of white grievance.”

He also called the speech “alt-right,” claiming Trump “won the presidency with a campaign of white nationalism.”

Heer said Trump “has used white grievance politics to redefine ‘the West.'”

Note Clancy's mind-reading about what he thinks critics of the speech "implied," and that any criticism of the speech was equal to "opposition to Western civilization." I guess we can similary assume that when WND puts "gay" in scare quotes, it is meant to imply no such thing exists.

But never mind all that, Clancy says, because the Poles loved it: "The speech, however, was well received by Trump’s audience in Poland: The crowd erupted into chants of 'Trump! Trump! Trump!' several times."

Clancy is certainly not going to concede that his WND colleague's "demographic winter" reminiscience is a white nationalist narrative either.

MRC Peddles Discredited Obama 'Apology Tour' Myth
Topic: Media Research Center

In a July 7 Media Research Center post, John Hirachauer cheered President Trump's "rousing defense of Western civilization" in a speech in Poland, asserting that the only people who didn't like it were the "perpetually outraged." Hirschauer went on to attack CNN's Don Lemon for asking whether Trump should have been "defending America and the press" during his speech:

One wonders- does Lemon’s unabashed patriotism extend to berating a President who literally went on an international tour, denying the uniqueness of the American experiment and apologizing to despots and thug-ocracies the world over for incidents of American intolerance? The answer is no, of course, because he works for CNN, who carried water on this subject (among others) for President Obama.

Hirschauer's evidence of this is a YouTube compilation of outy-of-context quotes in which Obama never actually apologizes for anything. Indeed, the whole idea that Obama went on an "apology tour" is nothing but a right-wing myth. As PolitiFact explains:

We set out to discover whether Obama really had apologized in his speeches, and what he was apologizing for. But in our review of his words, we came up short. Yes, there is criticism in some of his speeches, but it's typically leavened by praise for the United States and its ideals, and often he mentions other countries and how they have erred as well. There's not a full-throated, sincere apology in the bunch.

Hirschauer's further attack on CNN for having "carried water" for Obama on this subject is simply the website pointing out the same thing PolitiFact found: Obama never apologized.

When we tweeted Hirschauer to inform him of his factual error, he responded (in a tweet that was deleted shortly afterward): 

Had we been allowed to reply to Hirschauer before he deleted his tweet, we would have told him that random, out-of-context YouTube videos are divinations from on high either, and that claiming that Obama "language" whs "apologetic" ignores the fact that the words "apologize" or "I'm sorry" were not part of that "language." Also, insisting something in true despite the facts doesn't make it so, even if that's an article of faith among his fellow conservatives.

No wonder the MRC is pretending truth doesn't actually exist in the age of Trump.

The Clinton Derangement Never Stops At WND
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Last time we checked in on WorldNetDaily's ongoing case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome, it was freaking out over Chelsea Clinton making spinach pancakes. Now comes an anonymously written July 3 WND article:

Her rise to power was once seen as inevitable, her victory in the run for the presidency a foregone conclusion.

Yet today, Hillary Clinton is nothing but a source of anger, embarrassment and frustration for many Democrats who blame the former first lady for wasting enormous sums of money on an incompetent 2016 presidential campaign.

It was, after all, the second time she’s tried and come up short.

Yet to hear her, it was not her fault; it was sexism, the Russians and even the Democratic Party’s national leadership.

One observer who has closely followed her scandal-plagued career over decades, a childhood friend and former romantic partner of former President Bill Clinton, says there is no chance Hillary Clinton will ever accept responsibility for her failures, nor will she ever gracefully fade away from the media spotlight.

“Are you kidding me?” Dolly Kyle responded when asked if Hillary Clinton is planning on running for president again. “Hillary’s already running for president in 2020!

“For over 45 years, she has been riding Billy Clinton’s coattails. She has always known, at a deep level, she was incapable of achieving the lofty goal on her own. That’s why she followed Billy back to Arkansas in 1974. Does anyone think Hillary would have been elected to the Senate from New York if she had not discarded any shred of personal integrity by hitching her political wagon to a rapist/serial sex abuser? OK, to give the devil his due, Billy is a charming, politically astute rapist/serial sex abuser.

“In staying ‘married’ to Billy Clinton, Hillary has been abased and degraded as a battered spouse. After putting up with him/that for all these decades, she is not going to give up now. She has ‘paid her dues.’ It’s ‘her turn.’ She deserves it. She believes this.”

Never mind that Kyle can't possibly know any of this, given that it's unlikely she has had contact with anyone named Clinton for at least two decades. It seems Kyle had some Clinton-hate to spill and knew a similarly afflicted place where she could spill it. There is no news here whatsoever.

The fact that nowhere is it identified to whom exactly Kyle spewed all fo this tells us that this is nothing more than a publicist's plug for her Clinton-bashing book (it was published by WND, after all). And there is indeed a plug involved:

Kyle outlined her history with “Billy” Clinton and encounters with Hillary in her blockbuster book, “Hillary The Other Woman: A Political Memoir.” The book has  garnered nearly 900 five-star reviews at Amazon.com, with an average rating of 4.6 stars out of five with 1,130 total reviews.

Now, for Independence Day, Amazon.com has reported it will make the Kindle edition of the book a Daily Deal, at a special price of only $1.49 on July 4.

The fact that WND is presenting this deranged press release as "news" tells you all you need to know about its journalism standards.

CNS' Jeffrey Falsely Suggests Nothing Has Been Done To Reform Visas After 9/11
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com edoitor in chief Terry Jeffrey spent his June 7 column recounting how one of the 9/11 hijackers entered the U.S. on a tourist visa. He concluded:

"It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country," concluded the 9/11 Commission staff report on terrorist travel, published three years after the attacks.

But, even then, the problem had not been fixed.

"Indeed," said the commission staff in 2004, "even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy."

Now, 16 years after 9/11, President Donald Trump appears committed to fixing this problem and securing our border — including where it runs through our international airports.

Jeffrey is being disingenuous in his false suggestion that absolutely nothing has been done to address visa issues, hiding the work that has been done. He's also conveniently mum on the fact that Republicans ahve controlled Congress during most of the post-9/11 era.

An actual news outlet, CBS, explains the actual situation:

Congress passed legislation in 2004 requiring the implementation of a biometric entry/exit system. Still, 12 years later, actually implementing that system has remained elusive—though experts say technological advances mean it’s on the horizon -- at least for people arriving by air.

There’s widespread consensus that such a program needs to be put in place, but it’s been much more difficult to do in practice than it is to support in theory. One House aide noted that it’s not a partisan issue: various proposals for implementing the system have received broad bipartisan support. 

“If it was easy, it would have been done already,” the aide CBS News.

To begin with, it wasn’t until the last few years that technology was up to the task: a 2009 pilot program at airports ended up being scrapped, experts say, because the process was too clunky to use nation-wide and would have required too many additional security staffers, among other reasons. There are also questions about how such a system could be implemented while still keeping the flow of international passengers moving at high-volume airports in the U.S.

It's simply dishonest for Jeffrey to claim nothing as been done on the issue and that his beloved President Trump is riding in to save the day because he's "committed to fixing this problem and securing our border" -- as if nobody else has been over the past 15 years.

LGBT Derangement Syndrome, Supersize WorldNetDaily Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily

So, it may come as a surprise to you when I say every year I forget that the WNBA even exists until the NBA runs commercials with its star players during the playoffs reminding me to tune in. Let’s be honest: I’ll tune in when they do – never.

Having said that, here are five reasons why the WNBA will never be popular:

[...]

4) Men don’t want to watch women who act like men. This may sound chauvinist, but it’s true. Looks matter. Women who look and act manly are not appealing to watch. The feminist and LGBT movement may frown at this, but the rest of us know it’s true. The WNBA produces a product that appeals mainly to a left-wing audience, and, frankly, I’m not sure what it can do to change that.

-- Carl Jackson, June 26 WorldNetDaily column

Rights of conscience got a small boost last week when a federal appeals court upheld a state law designed for their protection. To hear opponents tell it, one would think that the law was some kind of attack on the LGBT population. But, in fact, it simply provides breathing room for people of faith who have been besieged by militant sexuality activists determined to ruin anyone who doesn’t cater to their sexual ethics.

-- Rita Dunaway, June 26 WND column

All cultures recognize that flags symbolize the powers that rule over a given territory. Raising its flag is the first action taken by any conquering power. How then should we interpret the raising of the rainbow flag across so many nations of the world, not just in June but whenever the “gay” movement is formally acknowledged?

For example, upon the U.S. Supreme Court’s issuance of the Obergefell “gay marriage” ruling, then-President Barack Obama used colored lights to bathe the White House in a rainbow flag. Importantly, no other special-interest group receives such honor by the ruling authorities.

Spiritually minded people should recognize this as a phenomenon with deep significance.

Just what does the rainbow itself symbolize, and why do the “gays” cloak themselves in it?

The rainbow is the biblical symbol of the presence and authority of God from the story of Noah’s flood, foundational to all the Abrahamic faiths, reaffirmed to Jews and Christians in Ezekiel 1:28, and to Christians in Revelation 4:3 in the New Testament. Could there be any more audacious statement of defiance of God than to hijack His symbol to represent the worldwide legitimization of sexual deviance He explicitly condemns? Could this be the meaning of the prophecy of the Antichrist in Revelation 6:2: “I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest”?

Does this verse definitively associate the “gay” movement with the Antichrist of the last days? No. Neither does the spiritual comparison of Jerusalem with “Sodom and Egypt” under the Antichrist in Revelation 11:8. Nor do modern “gay rights” laws that require Christian businesses such as bakers, printers and florists to endorse homosexuality – so reminiscent of restrictions on “buying and selling” imposed on those refusing to take the “Mark of the Beast” (Revelation 13:17). Still, it should give every Christian pause that the Bible’s many warnings about homosexuality from Genesis to Revelation are tied so closely to the last days and to extreme rebellion triggering God’s wrath, especially when these passages are viewed collectively.

-- Scott Lively, June 27 WND column

Take, for instance, the magnificent rainbow. Its celebration overtones convey simple joy, innocence and purity of heart.

But the sweet rainbow image has been violated, raped by the deluded and fraudulent, and it now serves too often as a garish signpost for slavery to grave homosexual sin.

It’s clear God did not intend for the rainbow to represent rebellion, iniquity and division. So how did this precious symbol become the banner, with few objections, for human depravity, lust, defiance and heresy?

[...]

Is Satan clever or what? He has countless people in this country doing his bidding, failing to understand they are preppers for the pit of hell.

Their Savior – if they would recognize Him – is the real author of the rainbow for His original life-affirming, godly purposes.

Its current misuse needs to end. Rainbows should accompany what God would smile on. God is not smiling on homosexual conduct, gender defiance or the corruption of children, and He never will.

An appropriate rainbow for the “LGBTQ” sin identity front would look very different, featuring colors like brown, puce, mauve, gray and black – lots and lots of black.

Depressing, uninspiring, empty, leading nowhere. Satan’s banner.

-- Linda Harvey, June 27 WND column

The redefining and/or the repurposing of language is used to obfuscate the decay of propriety inherent in a particular behavior. It is to anesthetize the public’s objections and sensitivity to perversion and debauchery – to the end that said behavior is viewed not only as acceptable, but also normal and natural.

An example of this would be the word “gay.” How did a word that the Oxford Dictionary and Webster’s Dictionary defined as: “happily excited, merry, keenly alive and exuberant, having or inducing high spirits; bright, lively, brilliant in color; given to social pleasure, licentious;” come to incorporate homosexual, of relating to or used by homosexuals?

Some sources say homosexuals adopted the word “gay” because the word “homosexual” was too clinical sounding and/or sounded too much like a disorder. 

I submit that homosexuals didn’t adopt the word “gay”; they forcibly conscripted it through intimidation and demagoguery. I further submit that the reason for same was precisely to anesthetize the public into accepting sexual perversion as normal. The last thing homosexuals wanted was any public thought given to how unnatural it was for men to sodomize one another and for women to lust after sexual perversion with other women.

I further add that after reading the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website information pertaining to the debilitating effects of homosexual behavior for both men and women, it is irrefutable that none but the most perversion-obsessed would ever refer to such behavior as “gay.” They might rightly refer to said behavior as “DWB,” i.e., “death wish behavior” or even “UB,” i.e., “unhealthy behavior,” but they would never co-opt a word that means “keenly alive and exuberant.”

-- Mychal Massie, July 3 WND column

Keep filters on school computers to reject “LGBTQ” material. These deceptive, often pornographic sites teach kids to accept sodomy as natural and good and as a valid dating practice. Children may adopt immoral ideas that lead them in the wrong direction. YouTube recently “unrestricted” many “LGBTQ” videos after an activist campaign, so these corrupting materials may be available on your child’s school computer. Parental action can hold schools accountable.

[...]

Contact the White House and object to the advocacy of gender rebellion via the federal “pronoun police” at Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education. What in the world is wrong with this woman? She is a Republican who somewhere along the line became an advocate of the high-risk and harmful behaviors of homosexuality and gender confusion.She may be an advocate of school choice, but with these views, DeVos can do a lot of damage to children. Tell President Trump you want her GONE along with her pro-homosexual, pro-transgender civil rights division head, Candice Jackson. These people are very bad news for children.

-- Linda Harvey, July 4 WND column

MRC Sneers At WNBA Team Partnering with Planned Parenthood
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center is less and less interested in media research and much more interested in simply denigrating anyone who deviates from its right-wing dogma.

Take the example of the WNBA's Seattle Storm planning to hold a rally to support Planned Parenthood. At CNSNews.com, Gage Cohen's response was to sneer: "The WNBA’s average viewership per game is about 224,000, which is more than 100,000 less than the total number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood in 2015-16."

Cohen also noted his failed attempt to troll the WNBA team:

CNSNews.com reached out to press representatives at the Seattle Storm and Chicago Sky via email for comment, asking them if their respective team members would be “permitted to not attend the July 18 game, without consequence, if they have a moral objection to raising money for Planned Parenthood?”

No replies had been received at the time of publishing.

The MRC's Jay Maxson, meanwhile, jacked up the nastiness level in a July 3 post:

Planned Parenthood has formed its first alliance with a professional sports team -- the Seattle Storm of the WNBA -- and left-stream writer Dave Zirin is ecstatic about it. Though he couldn't be angrier at the people who don't support this scandalous organization, which is under clouds and clouds of suspicion for numerous wrongdoings.

Zirin writes for the blog, "Edge of Sports," which would more accurately be named "Center of Radical Left-Wing Lunacy." He wrote "The move by the Storm is a recognition that Planned Parenthood is not only popular in liberal enclaves like Seattle. Despite years of demonization, it is viewed positively by a majority of the country and is far more popular than the illegitimate sexual predator who inhabits the Oval Office." (Fact check: Bubba Clinton was a predator in and out of the Oval Office).

If Zirin were better informed, he would look before he leaped into the topic of sexual predation. Bryan Finkel, who performed 20 percent of all the abortions in Arizona, is serving 35 years in prison for a conviction on 24 counts of sexual abuse of his patients. That's just one. Check out this list for more abortionists in the slammer for sexual abuse. Bad move, Dave Zirin, by bringing up the topic. What's more is the fact that Planned Parenthood has been hauled into courts in 10 states for refusing to report the rapes of under-age girls -- because it just wanted their money for doing abortions.

Maxson might havehad a point had any of those rogue abortion doctors actually worked for Planned Parenthood, which he offers no evidence of. He's also citing highly biased anti-abortion websites to back up his claims, which makes them at least somewhat dubious.

After noting that the columnist he's gratutiously bashing quoted a Planned Parenthood official saying that "Congress is working to block millions from accessing birth control and cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood," Maxson huffed: "Access to birth control? Ever heard of Walgreen's? CVS?" And Maxson was off and running on another screed:

Discerning people are demanding Congress defund this ethically challenged outfit which is fleecing the taxpayers of millions of dollars through billing the government for products people never ordered (and double billing Joe Taxpayer when those unwanted products are returned). PP is also lying about services it does not provide, like mammograms and cancer screenings. It merely tells women to call someone else for those services.

We have no idea what Maxson is ranting about.

Maxson also groused that the columnist accurately pointed out that anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" such as Vitae (which has a partnership with the Kansas City Royals) feed "false and dangerous information about women's health." Maxson growled in response: "Here's another road, women's health, that Zirin really doesn't want to go down. If he were smart."

Making vague threats based on right-wing dogma is hardly the way to persuade someone to your way of thinking, Jay.

Fake News: WND Falsely Blames 'Migrants' For Music Festival Rapes
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Liam Clancy Writes in a July 3 WorldNetDaily article:

Sweden’s largest summer music festival is calling it quits, thanks to a wave of sexual violence against women committed by the nation’s growing migrant population.

The four-day event known as the Bråvalla festival has hosted artists such as Kanye West, Robbie Williams and Iron Maiden. But next year’s event already has been canceled after a second straight year of reported sexual assaults.

The Bråvalla festival, held in the small southern Swedish city of Norrkoping, announced the decision after a rape was reported on Friday during a performance by pop singer Håkan Hellström.

Swedish police told local media they also recorded 11 cases of sexual assault at the event, which wrapped up July 1.

But despite his assertion that Sweden's "growing migrant population" is to blame for the rapes at the festival, Clancy provides no evidence that a "migrant" committed any rape there.

Indeed, the idea that migrants are engaging in mass rape of festival-goers apparently originated with a police claim following reports of assaults at last year's festival -- a claim police later retracted.

Without actual evidence to back up his claim, Clancy resorts to anti-Muslim fearmongering -- because apparently "migrant" is synonymous with "Muslim" -- calling on anti-Muslim activists like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller to hawk their hate and ominously warning that "Sweden is now home to 2,000 Islamist extremists" and that "jihadists are expected to continue to flood Sweden as they return home."

Where did all this hate come from when Clancy can't even prove his main claim? A note at the end of the article explains it all: "WND News Editor Leo Hohmann contributed to this report." He, of course, would be WND's chief Islamophobe.

After last year's "migrant" fiasco, a writer for the UK's Guardian stated: "It’s wrong to lay the blame, as we do for so many of the world’s problems, on a faceless foreign mass." Clancy, Hohmann and WND clearly believe otherwise.

CNS Managing Editor Suddenly Loves Twisted Sister Because Trump
Topic: CNSNews.com

Here's one of the more unlikely things we've seen in a while: A Media Research Center writing approvingly of '80s rock band Twisted Sister.

CNSNews.com managing editor Michael W. Chapman tells us all aout it in a June 12 blog post -- and, needless to say given CNS' fanboyish pro-Trump stenography, there's as Trump involved:

Believe it or not, Twisted Sisters' lead singer Dee Snider sang the teen hit "We're Not Gonna' Take It!" at a fundraiser for the Eric Trump Foundation, which benefits St. Jude's Children's Hospital, and Donald Trump, Eric Trump and his wife Lara, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanaka Trump, and Ivana Trump (the president's first wife) joined in onstage to belt out the rock classic. 

The fundraiser took place in August 2015. Donald Trump announced he would run for president in June 2015. The video has recently resurfaced and it is a cultural oddity to behold. 

"We're Not Gonna Take It!" is a rock song about teenage rebellion against an older generation. Given Trump's campaign about "draining the swamp" and weeding out the old, obsolete, and ineffectual forces in Washington, D.C., the song could easily be viewed as a message about Trump's vision and that of his followers, the so-called "deplorables." They aren't going to take it, anymore.

Chapman then reprinted the complete lyrics of the song.

Also needless to say, Chapman didn't mention that Snider succeeded in getting Donald Trump to stop playing the song at his campaign rallies. Nor did he mention that the Donald J. Trump Foundation apparently funneled money from the Eric Trump Foundation into the Trump Organization and other Trump-related charities, in part by charging exhorbitant amounts for the Eric Trump Foundation to use Trump-owned golf courses for charity events. That's something New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has decided he's not going to take anymore.

WND Scraping Bottom of Barrel To Keep Seth Rich Conspiracies Alive
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has been flailing for some time to keep its malicious and cynical Seth Rich conspiracy theories alive. Not only has its GoFundMe campaign been a failure -- as of this writing, just over $4,000 has been raised in more than a month of soliciting -- it's running out of stories to pump it up.

On June 22, Alicia Powe was content to serve as stenographer for similarly malicious conspiracy-monger Jack Burkman -- a Republican lobbyist whose politically motivated conspiracy promotion Powe laughably called "independent" and "nonpartisan" -- who was ranting that "Several online accounts belonging to murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich have been deleted in recent weeks."

By June 28, Powe was down to promoting a fringe candidate for Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's congressional seat, Tim Canova, who was asserting that "Any American who cares about the rule of law should be demanding the truth about the mysterious murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich." Powe lamented that "After weighing in on social media about the Seth Rich murder mystery, Canova quickly became the target of widespread criticism."

Surprisingly, Powe did report on Canova's even more conspiratorial rants, like how he believes Wasserman Schultz apparently sent a power surge to his house that fried his computer surge protector.

Powe also used a June 25 article to promote a class-action lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee for, in Powe's words, "rigging the 2016 presidential election" (shouldn't Powe be talking to Russia about that?) -- a lawsuit so badly constructed, according to one observer, that its issues "would be apparent to any second semester law student." Powe did PR work for the plaintiffs, uncritically repeating their assertion that "they’re being harassed with threatening messages and “freaky” encounters and they fear for their safety – particularly in the wake of the mysterious and unsolved murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich – but a federal court has denied their request for protection." Powe also regurgitated their purported concer nover Rich's death because, according to a statement by one fo the lawyers, "Mr. Rich might have been a potential witness in this case."

That's what might be charitiably called scraping the bottom of the barrel. Then again, complete lack of credibility hasn't stopped WND before.

MRC Pushes Fake News That GOP Health Care Bill Doesn't Cut Medicaid
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center is so loyal to President Trump -- remember the big flip from last summer and the Mercer money that may have driven it -- that it will go the fake-news route to defend him and the Republicans who support him.

The MRC's big talking point on the GOP Senate's health care bill is that, despite what everyone is saying, it doesn't cut Medicaid. Nicholas Fondacaro laid out the talking point in a June 25 post: "The Senate bill doesn’t cut Medicaid, it only slows down the rate of spending growth by the federal government. In fact, the bill pegs spending growth to inflation so it’s almost guaranteed to go up every year."

Of course, slowing down the rate of spending growth is still a cut if Medicaid is rising faster than inflation, which it is. Fondacaro, doesn't mention that, though.

The MRC has been religiously repeating the talking point ever since:

• Fondacaro complained on June 26 about a media report containing "fake news about the bill drastically slashing Medicaid."
• Alex Xenos grumbled: "In reality, the plan cuts the rate of growth in Medicaid spending. Only Democrats would consider that an actual cut."
• Fondacaro again whined that "ABC and NBC both continued to push the fake news story of there being massive cuts to Medicaid in the bill during their evening broadcasts. That’s despite the fact that the CBO report itself disproves their lie.
• Scott Whitlock dutifully insisted that "In reality, the bill simply slows the rate of growth."
• Kevin Baker had a lengthy regurgitation of the talking point that somehow included much more wiggle room: "The line of attack by the liberal media that supposed "cuts" to Medicaid in the Republican health care bill will destroy health care is ludicrous. In reality, there are no "cuts" to anything. The proposal would actually increase Medicaid spending, but at a slower rate over time than under ObamaCare. Furthermore, there is nothing in the legislation preventing our esteemed elected officials from revising such spending as time goes on, so the idea that Medicaid itself will undergo any sort of profound change is unlikely at best."
• Fondacaro once more: "the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) continued to spread the fake news that Senate Republicans were cutting Medicaid despite the Congressional Budget Office’s report the proved otherwise."
• Baker returned to complain about "the narrative that the fictional Medicaid "cuts" in the GOP health care bill would devastate the poor."

Like a lot of arguments the MRC makes, the claim that the GOP bill doesn't cut Medicaid because funding doesn't decrease is biased, narrowly tailored and ludicrous.

The Washington Post's Philip Bump explained how dishonest this argument is when it was voiced by White House aide Kellyanne Conway, pointing out that both House and Senate GOP health care bills would cut federal funding to states to fund Medicaid expansion, which would effectively be a cut because cash-strapped states are unlikely to fil the gap on their own:

Conway argues that the Republican measures give “governors more flexibility” in allocating Medicaid funding, thanks to another change in the bills, which would switch how the government pays for Medicaid by moving to a per capita compensation system. But the reduction in federal funding as above would also mean states would face significantly higher cost, even while, as Conway argues, it’s already the case that “states are having a very difficult time meeting the bills.”

Bump concluded:

Conway’s argument is that decreasing federal spending and slowing the amount spent per patient over the long term is not a “cut” to the program, since the program still exists and since there will still be funding. That’s the political goal, to allow Republicans [like Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) who made the case on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday] to argue that vulnerable Medicaid patients won’t be at risk because funding will continue and because the Obamacare expansion mostly added people who were healthier. But reducing funding to states means that states will have to either pay more or decide how and where to focus Medicaid enrollment to reduce costs.

In other words, because federal funding for Medicaid is decreasing from current levels, Medicaid will have to be cut in some manner from its current state.

It appears the MRC is putting out fake news -- which if loves to bash the "liberal media" for allegedly engaging in.